The present invention relates to the new and distinct cultivar botanically known as Monarda didyma ‘Cherry Pops’, and hereinafter also referred to solely as the cultivar ‘Cherry Pops’ or the “new plant”. The new plant was the subject of an open pollination in summer of 2010 at a wholesale perennial nursery in Zeeland, Mich., USA. Seed was harvested by the inventor in the fall of 2010 and later the individual seedling later assigned the breeder identification number H10-09-51. The female or seed parent is the unreleased proprietary hybrid Monarda didyma HK9-44-40 (not patented) and the male or pollen parent is unknown but may have been any one of a number of plants and seedlings in the breeding area since the pollen is efficiently spread long distances by insects. The plant was initially subjected to evaluation in the summer of 2011 in trial plots of the same nursery in Zeeland, Mich. The new plant was collected and set apart as a single selected seedling in July of 2012 and separated out for final evaluation in the summer of 2013 by Hans Hansen.
The plant has been asexually propagated by stem cuttings as early as the summer of 2012 at the same nursery in the greenhouses in Zeeland, Mich., and the subsequent asexually propagated plants found to be stable and identical to the original selection.